Narrowboat Gecko was our home for twelve years whilst we cruised the inland waterways. Now we are moving ashore and GECKO IS FOR SALE

Wednesday, 18 October 2017

Canal & Rivers DISTRUST

Canal and Rivers Trust (C&RT) have recently been 'consulting' with interested parties on a review of how boats are licenced for using the waterways under its control.National Association of Boat Owners (NABO) which is the most broadly representative of all the boating pressure groups has been involved in this and has become disillusioned by C&RT's approach. The 'consultation' seems to be a sham. C&RT appear to have decided how licensing is going to change and are going through the motions and massaging the results to support this decision.
NABO issued the following message to all members and I urge ALL boaters, whether members of NABO or not, to make their views know to C&RT as soon as possible.

Your Council met recently and felt that we should urgently communicate our

views and recommendations with regard to CRT's latest consultation.
Canal and River Trust have spent considerable time and expense getting to

this stage yet in our view have now effectively ignored the majority view.
CRT have in this consultation posed questions intimating that these have

the support of the two earlier stages and of the Navigation Advisory Group

(NAG L&M) where boaters views were requested. This is not the case.
At the specially convened meeting of NAG and the boaters representatives

Mark Tizard and Alison Tuck from NABO attended) we were advised that after
getting the views of the boating organisations (stage 1) and the boaters

workshops (stage 2) the only common themes emerging were the approval to

change the way licensing was charged from length to area and to review